LINKS

05 May 2010

Last week was terrific! After attending the NGS (National Genealogical Society) conference in downtown Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace, I was physically exhausted, spiritually uplifted, and felt like my brain was on overload! This was the best conference I've been to and will plan on attending next year in Charleston, South Carolina! Yes, I'm willing to go there to spend five days doing it all over again.

Why, you might ask? Because no matter how far into genealogy/family history you are, there is always more to learn and share with others. I really want to find those lost ancestors who drive me crazy on a daily basis. Conferences offer one of the best ways to learn the skills needed to find these ancestors. Classes range from the very beginning to the very advanced. So don't ever feel like you might not know enough to attend a conference - just go and find those classes that are right for you.

It's been many, many years since the NGS conference came to Salt Lake and it likely will be many more before they come again. So watch the bloggers and we'll keep you up to speed on what's going on around you. There are other conferences locally and you can always find something more to help you improve your skills.

Genealogy is one of the fastest growing activities in the world and changes occur almost daily. This year's conference had tracts of classes ranging from skill-building, methodology, records, writing and photography. Research classes offered training in international, British Isles, Polish, Swedish, immigration, African, Eastern European, Hispanic, and many other records and groups. FamilySearch had a strong presence at the conference. They taught classes, had mini workshops, had plenty of hands-on experience, and set up a large bank of PC's that created a mini Family History Library with all the subscription websites available. Besides all of this the GenTech group was large. About any vendor you can think of was in attendance with demo's, prizes, specials and training classes. It was a great experience for the approximate 2500 attendees. These conferences also open the doors of communication letting you visit and share with others, renew old relationships and meet-up with others from the online community.

Thursday evening the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints hosted "A Celebration of Family History" at the Conference Center. All Family History consultants were given the chance to get four tickets to the celebration even if they did not attend the conference. I know many that did not take this opportunity and missed a remarkable program which included the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Symphony. Author and historian, David McCullough and Elder Eyring were speakers. However, based on what I saw that evening there were probably 13-15,000 people in attendance. There was plenty of room for walk-ins.

In case you missed it, there are a few things you can see online. There were several videos presented during the evening performance. You can view these at Photos-Videos-Story.

Watch the blog feed to the right of this article for updates from the various bloggers and other news media who were in attendance. If you miss any of them, here are a few, including summaries from some lectures.